#784 - Robin Sharma - Why $1,000,000,000 Won’t Make You Happy

29:23Right now, my life partner, Elle, we just love many of the same things. So a great evening for us is home chatting and reading. We see the world through a similar set of lenses. There's very little drama. So there's not a lot of negotiating. We just love living life with one another. It doesn't mean it's perfect, but it's really very wonderful. So I don't think opposites attract, and there's this idea. Universes collide, find someone where universe is collide. I'd rather have universes collide in the most serene, stable, loving way. That's how I'd like universes collide. So I think find someone who sees the world the way you see the world and it creates a lot less drama and You know that brings me to another through line in the book which is you can change the world or be around toxic people But you don't get to do both and I want to go to some science here from

30:34Nicholas Christakis at Harvard University. And what he's realized is we are influenced not only by our friends, but by the friends of our friends and the friends of our friends as friends. And we could get into the science on that. It's mirror neurons which cause us to mimic the people around us. An emotional contagion, which is the phenomenon where subconsciously we adopt the dominant emotions of the people we spend most of our time with. And so if we allow energy vampires and dream Steelers into our days, into our companies, into our home lives, over time it dramatically degrades our creativity, our productivity, our happiness, and our serenity.

31:15So doing an energy vampire detox, let's call it, is really extraordinarily powerful. And I always see people say, well, you know, that person is my mother or whoever I would say, well, then practice selective Association, maybe don't text them three times a day, do it once a week. But in some cases, maybe it's a personal relationship. Maybe it's a friend. You talked about it. If you're on a path of growth, very few people are in a path of growth. Friends who are your friends a few years ago might not vibe with you anymore. They might be bringing you down. You've got to let them go or you could let them go.

31:50I would say love them from afar. Yeah, it's difficult with the family thing. I guess I'm maybe in some ways I'm blessed. I'm an only child and I've got mum and dad. So for me, the number of dice rolls that could have potentially thrown up a grenade in my life, I only had two. As long as mum and dad were great, which they were and are, I don't have that, but I understand that for people with bigger families, you know, you've got five brothers and sisters and a ton of close aunties and uncles and, you know, Uncle Jim is always causing havoc and it's a nightmare at Christmas and it's a nightmare at Thanksgiving and you always need there's phone calls and there's police calls and all the rest of it that's that's tough you know I in some ways wish that family was a bigger part of my life but in other ways I can see how it can be a total curse as well as a blessing for people.

32:43I totally agree with you. One thing I mean my My father is going to be 87 in a few weeks. And as I put more years under my belt, you know, I do realize how powerful family is. And yeah, your parent, I've got great parents. You realize your parents and your family does their best. And I think it brings you an absolutely great source of joy. And that's why it's the third form of wealth. And if it's not family, it's friends. You know, we live in a world right now where we chase 20 ,000 digital friends, but I believe if you have three great friends, you're a very rich person indeed. Three friends where when you see them after a few years, you start on the last sentence after you saw them last time.

33:34Three friends where you can be yourself and they still love you. Three friends where you're down on your knees and they're there for you. Three friends where you're in trouble in a foreign country and you call them at 3am and And they say, hey, hang on for a second, Chris, I'm going to be on the next plane. That's a currency, I think, that money can't buy. Talk to me about this confusion between attachment and love. Well, I just think there's, I think there's a huge difference. I think attachment is born of fear. I think attachment is coming from a place where you don't love yourself enough so you can't be alone.

34:10Blaze Pascal said most, the French mathematician said most of the human beings miseries derived from their inability to sit quietly in a room with themselves. If you haven't done the inner work required to be comfortable in your own skin, then you're going to be attached to feeling you're like not only with relationship partners that make you feel better about yourself, but other drugs of choice, whether it's alcohol, whether it's digital toys, whether it's material things. So attachment, I believe, is coming from a place of fear. Love is very different. Love is not needy. Love is truly wanting the best for the other person.

34:55Love is secure. Love is stable. Love is grounding. One of the things that I think both of us have spent a good bit of time thinking about is craft and paying attention and doing things well and finding joy in the work for its own sake. I think craft is definitely a missing word. Taste is another one I think that's missing from a lot of people's lexicans. The reason that craft is missing is work or the offering that you have to give to the world is seen as it's optimal to get it to the point at which you can get the transaction for it from the market or from the other person and no further. There is no reason to over -deliver.

35:41There is no reason to take any more time than is required to deliver the minimum viable product to be able to get it to the market and ship it and make the money. Talk to me about how craft has sort of played a role in your life and how you advise it for other people. Well, two words coming to my van Gogh. Vincent van Gogh, a great movie to watch. I'm guessing you love film, but please watch at Attorney D's Gate with Willem DeFoe and he's playing Vincent van Gogh and you'll see the troubles and the suffering Vincent van Gogh went through and no one understood his art. There's actually one scene in the movie where Vincent van Gogh is in a Sainis Island and the manager of the insane asylum has one of Vincent Van Gogh's drawings and shows it to him and says, Vincent, you actually think this is beautiful.

36:28And Vincent Van Gogh looks at and goes, yes, I really think it is. And Vincent Van Gogh only sold two paintings in his entire lifetime. Live his life in anonymity, deep poverty, and yet he pursued his craft not for the applause and the fame and the fortune, but he did it because he wanted to push beauty into the world. So I have all sorts of thoughts on the fourth form of wealth of craft. You know, even if no one sees your work, you're creating an app, you're writing a book, you're doing a screenplay, or you're launching a social justice movement. Even if you do it not for the applause you get, but for the person you're becoming in hot pursuit of what lights you up.

37:15Do it for doing hard difficult work, creating what I call in the book, your project, ex, your Taj Mahal, your great pyramid of Giza, your Sistine Chapel ceiling. Don't only do it for the fame and fortune. Do it for what talents and strengths it introduces you to within you. Isn't that a priceless treasure? On mastery, I would also say generosity beats scarcity every day of the week. You're right. You go to most, get on most airplanes. I've been on so many airplanes on this book tour. You can't believe the food they're serving you. Can't believe these are experience. Can't believe how many people are checked out.

38:02Generosity is a deep value. generosity is saying how many how may I deliver outrageous value to as many people as possible? It's so rare. But in your work in your mastery, whether you're writing a book, doing a podcast, creating a business, running a team, ask yourself how may I distribute magic, how may I push extraordinary quality out into the world. And so many people, what they do is they push minimum viable product out in the marketplace, but I have this idea I call it the 10x value obsession. Give your customers 10 times the value they have any right to expect and that's a formula for building a global base of fanatical followers.

38:50And then another thing I if I made I'd say about mastery is genius love solitude. There's a chapter which is find your personal goal deny. We live in a world right now where we don't get in a flow state, we We are constantly in the world, but if you look at the great athletes, they had practice rooms. You look at the great scientists. They all had labs. You look at great artists. They all had studios. Winston Churchill had checkers and chart well. Andrew Wyeth had Chad's Ford, Pennsylvania, this barn he would paint in and cushing Maine where he would retreat to from the world to create his masterpieces.

39:31One of my favorite artists is Jean -Michel Basquiat. He said, all medicine men live in caves. And so that chapter, find your own, find your personal golden eye comes from Ian Fleming, who created the James Bond novel. He found this cottage by the sea in Jamaica and he called it golden eye. He would get away there and he would retreat to do his most beautiful work. And he was so monomonically focused on creating what I call a tight bubble of total focus free of distraction. The gardeners, when they would walk across his line of sight on the Atlantic Ocean, he would say, please don't ever do that.

40:11And so if you want to create, I think you can play with your phone or change the world, you can't do both. And I think spending time each day alone is incredibly essential. We both agree that the no one will notice it statement that people have about craft is a lie. I think that sure, maybe not everyone will notice it. Not everyone will notice the extra steps that you go to to try and add beauty or value or effort to the work that you put out into the world. But some people will and for the people that do, I think it's worth so much more. I used to have an existential crisis at about two o 'clock in the morning when I was coming back from nightclubs.

40:57So I ran nightclubs for a long time and on my way home I'd realize I don't have any milk for tomorrow, I don't have any bread for tomorrow, whatever. And then stop off at a 24 hour supermarket on the way home. And every time that I was in there I would always regularly think, God, what am I doing? It's 2 .30 in the morning and I'm buying bread and it's all quiet and you're on your own. And I spoke to a friend and he said, next time that you're in there, when you see the people that are stacking shelves that you're having to navigate around, just do something really nice, wish them a good day or hope that they're okay or ask how the the morning's going or whatever, because that's an opportunity for you to do something that's meaningful.

41:34And that's like, I guess it's a little bit interpersonal, but it's also kind of like the craft of being a human, right? Like that that degree of effort is something that someone else will take pleasure in. And I've seen this in reverse. The reason I brought it up about the supermarket is that in reverse, there's, everyone's had that one checkout assistant that's just been fired up to be there. And they don't need to. You do, I don't expect you to sing and dance and you know, put a performance on for me. The goal is to get the stuff into the bags and for me to get back to my car. But someone's there asking how your day's going and being bubbly and just fired up about what's going on.

42:13You think, I actually feel better leaving. And that's craft. They didn't need to. it's over delivering what they needed to in order to get the job done. But I've left feeling uplifted. So how is that an effort that's wasted? Well, we're singing from the same songbook. A few replies to that. So JK Rowling said, for some to love you, some must love you. I think that's very powerful. So you're right, we can't please everyone. Not everyone will notice it. But for some to love you some must love you. Secondly, you said not everyone would notice it. What I would say is almost everyone feels quality.

42:57I don't know if I'm saying it very elegantly, but the intention with which you work is felt by the people who consume your products. One of my favorite movies is Joker. If you look at the behind the scenes work, That's a piece of mastery. That movie is a piece of mastery. So people feel the quality and the intention that you're putting into anything that you do in terms of your craft. If you are mailing it in versus bringing it on, if you're doing it for the cash versus the magic, if you are doing it for FFA, Fame, Fortune and the applause, people will sniff this insanity in the product. Third thing I'd say, you talked about the grocery store.

43:41I remember reading that you were a nightclub in Pursario in your early days before your TV days. I had the Center of the LA Lakers come to my one of my live events a number of years ago, Pogas Salt, absolute gentleman, and I drove him to the airport after the event. And as we walked through the airport. I saw something absolutely fascinating. He had to get to a gate to catch a plane. But every little kid who came up to him, he stopped, he listened, he took a picture. Every adult who came and said, can you sign this, can you do this? I have a story to tell you, you inspired me. He had the time.

44:23And as we walked through the entire airport, he had time for every single human being who took the time out of their day to stop palgasol. And at the gate I asked him, I said, pal, that's really quite amazing what you did. You had time for everyone. You were fully present with each human being. And Chris, he said something I've never forgotten and I think it's a real truth. He said, Robin, it takes so little to make someone happy. You're at a... You were just here in Miami. Staying at a hotel, go to a Starbucks, pick up another, pick up a couple of croissants for the people at the front door. Now you're on an airplane, you're an author, someone's nice to you, you know what, I'd love to send you a book.

45:09Can you write out your address, take a picture of it, send it to your assistant or your team or do it yourself so you follow through on your promise and send them that. In the book there's that story when I was a little kid I used to love this Canadian TV show called Mr. Dress Up. Mr. Dress Up was this man who he's to talk about, you know, like Mr. Rogers, and he had these puppets. And here I was, roughly six years old, a huge fan, so I wrote him a letter. But a week later, my mum brings me this postcard, picture of KC and Finnegan and Mr. Dress Up. And there's a handwritten note from Ernie Colnes, the man who is Mr.

45:47all these years later, I still remember that act of humanity. So you're right. Craft is not only pushing magic and calibrating your skills to be a merchant of wow in this world where there's just so much mediocrity. Craft is also delivering value by positivity and making those human connections. The last quick thing if I may, I was in London and you're right. you know, a lot of taxi drivers, they see a job as just a job and they can't wait till they get home. And yet there was this one taxi driver, I walked up to his London cab and it was glittering. Literally, he was, he was rubbing the rubber, the tires as I was walking up with my luggage.

46:36And as we drove, he was like regaling me with stories and he was telling me this and I asked him like, deconstruct why you do this and there was still a sparkle in his eye and he goes, because I love what I do and I meet interesting people and I practice the knowledge. I'm an London cabbie and I take great pride in this. And as we pulled up to City Airport, it was really interesting. It goes, you want to see what I do before everyone gets into my cab? I said, sure. You pulled out this Windex. He goes, I'd wash the windows and then he had an electric shampooer and he goes and a shampoo, the carpet, that everyone puts their feet on before every guest comes in.

47:12I think that's a great example of craft and mastery. It's not about being famous. It's about the pride you feel on a job well done. That's one of the reasons why I've got such a distaste for cynicism on the internet, because it's quite easy for someone, if that cabbie was a YouTuber and decided to post that video about you on YouTube, there would be an awful lot of comments saying, this is pointless. like, well, what are you even doing this for? No one even cares. They're putting their feet on the floor. Why does it matter how clean it is? Like you're rubbing the side of the wheels, they're just going to get mucky in any case.

47:48And there is a culture of people doing things that are quaint and effortful being disparaged. And that would disincentivize someone from doing it. And yet, this taxi driver who presumably isn't posting this stuff on YouTube, does it for the pure love of it. And I think that if I could turn down the internet sort of critical, cynical voice, I think that a lot of people would do a lot more great things. I think they'd lean into craft and awful lot more because craft is mostly what's hidden that doesn't really get seen. And yes, you're right. There is utility and beauty and for the people who care about it, they will notice job well done, never wasted, etc.

48:33But I do think that it disincentivizes some people. I don't think, I think that enthusiasm around people doing hard things well and beautifully would help more people to do it. And I think that a beautiful world would be something that everybody could benefit from a bit more. Yeah, I don't, I totally hear you and I don't think there's anything quaint about it. I think, I think doing these things is hard and heroic and brave and honorable. You know, I think about, you know, integrity is so much more valuable than money. And even if no one sees that taxi driver, you're the only person you're going to get to be with your entire life.

49:09And when your head hits the pillow every night, if you're alone or whether you're with someone, you feel good about yourself and you have self respect, that's worth more than all the gold in the world. I need to say that again because I deeply believe in some port. Integrity is more valuable than money. And if you respect yourself and you take pride, that fourth form of wealth in the book, You see your you see driving a taxi or Digging graves or working in a coffee shop or writing books or Being an astronaut or whatever it is if you do it with honor and integrity and a love of mastery It's not only what it does for the world.

49:51It's what it does for you Yeah, that's beautiful Yeah, like what's the point of having all these houses? Nothing wrong with it's the fifth form of well, nothing wrong with these things. I want to be super clear. What's life all about? I think ultimately it's, you know, feeling good in your own skin, feeling you're being true to yourself. Maybe it's you started off the show, the interview talking about, you know, peace. I think what we are chasing is not the things. It's the feeling that the things will bring. I think that was your point. And I think that's very true We don't want the jet. We don't want the portfolio.

50:32We don't want the 10 million followers We want the feeling that we're craving and missing that we think those things will bring and Having been in this field 31 years and working with some very serious heavyweights in business mastery athletics I can tell you nothing on the outside will ever feel those fill up those inner holes Is there anything wrong with pursuing a Mount Everest? No, it's beautiful. We are species that created the great art. We are the same species that created the Eiffel Tower and the Internet and Flight. I think we are meant to grow. We're happiest growing. Go to the science.

51:11The human brain craves novelty. Having said that, I think if we are addicted to accumulating, we could spend our best hours claiming a mountain only to realize at the end of this year a career or a lifetime we spent our finest moments climbing the wrong mountain. You mentioned money, the most obvious form of wealth perhaps. What's the Howard Hughes money trap? Long story short here is a man who is a great inventor, a great visionary. He's the one who developed Vegas as you know. He bought TWA. He launched a Hollywood movie studio. He was a man of great vision, great brave, great charisma. But how did he die?

52:00He died, he died alone in a, from everything I've read, a filthy hotel room with needles in his arms. naked. So that first chapter of that form of wealth starts with a cautionary tale, which is allow financial wealth to be your servant versus your master and be super careful about the dangers. And I've seen this with my clients, the dangers that great wealth brings. I mean a lot of billionaires spend their day defending and protecting the generational wealth that they've made. They don't enjoy it. Or they've made so much money, they filled their life with complexity. I started off the book talking about one of the happiest people I've ever met, my ski instructor.

52:57I was trying to get a level one ski course so I could teach. It was one of my dreams in my 40s. This is one of the happiest people I knew and one day we're going up a chair lift and here's this man with rosy cheeks and always smiling super fit in his 60s. He said, Rob and us ski instructors, we're not rich, but we have rich lives. I actually think he's richer than most of the billionaires in the world and I would say the same for that taxi driver and I would say the same for people who might not have a lot of money and a lot of things, but they have integrity or great family lives or they paint or they do work that they're that lights them up and they might not be heading a company or on on the cover of a magazine but they sure do have joy in their hearts.

53:47What role do you think? Scacity and abundance as a frame that we view the world through plays in how people deal with their relationship to money. Super question. Generosity is how the financially wealthy make money. So, money is a reflection of magic delivered in the marketplace. Another way to put it is, I'll use the words of the billionaire Ted Turner, the one who serves the best profits the most and he was using the words of the founder Paul Harris of Rotary, but he said the one who serves the best prophets the most. If you're coming from a place of scarcity, let's go to a restaurant. You've been in a lot of restaurants.

54:40I've been in a lot of restaurants. The room isn't beautiful. The culture isn't one where people are merchants of wow. It always comes from the tops. So clearly the owner does really clear care. the food might not be fresh, the food is not beautifully done. But what the owner seems to be trying to do is get as much money as possible while giving as little value as possible. I actually think that's the norm in business today. I believe we are suffering from the collective deprofessionalization of business. It's very rare to see a master in action or merchant of wow. I think all of this let's give as little as valuable as possible and put out a cheap movie to get us much money.

55:24Let's go to create a restaurant where our goods are not really that mastery and we'll try to take money. I think all of that behavior is coming from scarcity. Coming from a place where there's not enough in the world, coming from fear, the emotion of fear. I better get as much money as possible because they're not a lot there. It's countertuitive, but generosity wins. So let's say it's your podcast and all the value you bring to millions of people. Let's say it's a restaurant where the food I live in Italy, I see lots of restaurants like this. The mozzarella di Bufala was brought up from Poulier at four o 'clock that morning.

56:09You've got native Robin, come back to us, you've got native. You start talking about mozzarella di Bufala and something happens to my brain. It's like my little turkey. She got a new ball, a little ball. I'm on the road, so I'll send me these pictures and our little sheep otter, a little ball because turkeys are ratters. They love rats. The ball not only squeals, but it lights up. It's almost like too much for this dog's brain. She just goes berserk. And I started talking about mozzarella de bufola and ketchup, and I, but there are restaurants in Rome where they just care so much. And you walk in and they treat you like you remember the family and the food is so great and the room is simple, but it's beautiful.

56:59And it's coming from a generous heart. And people might say, you know, give us some strong business strategies. That is a strong business strategy. The more you can work with love, the more you can work from place of generosity, the more you can say, how may I most deliver the greatest value for as many people as possible? That's a recipe for building a global movement around your products and services. That's why Apple under Steve Jobs was so amazing. He was not an entrepreneur. He was an artist. He wanted, before the iPhone ship, he said, I want the icons on the iPhone to be so gorgeous the users would want to lick the screen.

57:38He was obsessed not with the bottom line. He was obsessed with pushing beauty out into the world. You read Isaacson's book jobs, etc., etc. That's a great example of generosity that comes from the first form of well growth. That's why personal development is so powerful. The more you can move through your scarcity issues, what I call them the book, your scarcity scars. The more you can be a servant leader, the more you can feel safe in the world. That's what allows you to do beautiful work that inspires people and the byproduct is fame, fortune and applause. What's the way that people can deprogram those scarcity scars?

58:17Starting with self -awareness. Awareness is the DNA of transformation. So journaling is a great tool for that. Just every morning, free flowing. Start paying attention. Where may I be withholding being generous, then also paying attention to how you feel? So what are the things that activate you that make you feel insecure or scared? Maybe it's buying something. Maybe it's you see someone on the internet having more than you have. Hey, don't knock them down. Look in the mirror and say, what's going on with me? Why do I feel jealous? Why do I feel bad? And the more you can start doing this practice, you'll build fluency, just like a chestmaster who practices, builds fluency with their mastery, when you start doing this emotional healing and start paying attention.

59:07Oh, here, this is what activates me. Here's who I'm jealous about. You start the process of releasing that. You become more aware and then you become a choice. Also MVP, meditation, visualization, and prayer is a great tool to really scarcity. Third thing, working with a healer, talk therapy, very, very powerful. Fourth, spending more time alone and just reflecting on that is incredibly powerful. And then I'd say the fifth thing, the practice stuff being a giver versus a taker.

59:42So practice being, how do you get to be generous? You practice being generous. even if it's that story value chain gratitude you talked about being in the grocery store while you're waiting at the check out paying for your broccoli you do a silent thanks to the cashier for the worksheet doing where he's doing and then you take a few moments and you're grateful for the stock person who put it on the shelves and very quickly you thank the trucker who brought it there and And then very quickly, you think the farmer who made it. And imagine if every step of the way, even writing thank you notes to the grocery store owner or the grocery store cashier person.

1:00:24And I'm in a hotel right now. There's a nice, I made my, I'm not saying I'm some kind of a guru, but I made my bed today. I put the bath towels in the bathtub and I'm making sure everything looks really clean because there's someone's family member walking in this hotel room after I leave. And so the practice of giving, if you do it consistently, you get really good at it, which makes you more generous. And then it becomes like any habit, any skill, with practice, you reach what researchers call automaticity. And it becomes easier to practice the new skill than not to do it. It's crazy how you don't just see this in relationships with strangers, but in relationships with friends as well, and the community that you build around you.

1:01:08I've just got back from Miami. It's one of my best friends birthdays. There was 12 of us out there and all of those guys were happy to do like ridiculously over the top things just to make the rest of us happy. We're there for a birthday, so maybe everyone's kind of on their best form and being a little bit more generous than they would be usually. But it's just so nice. And I think that, you know, in the same way as craft in your professional work is something that is, it adds value that doesn't necessarily have a, it doesn't appear on a balance sheet being generous in that way with strangers and especially your friends and your community adds value in a way that people maybe even can't identify.

1:01:49It's not necessarily even going to be a memory that's going to sort of stick up there, but it's going to uplift the way that they feel. A few things I say to I totally agree with you. A gift given for the sake of a reward is not a gift, it's a barter. So the sincerity and intention of the gift is very, very powerful. I don't know if you've heard this, but there's a great Japanese word is called intoku. Intoku is the Japanese word for the art of giving in secret. So I would actually say it's great your friends give gift, you give gifts, we all do that. Amazing. I think the highest form of giving is anonymous gift giving.

1:02:31I think if you give a gift to have your name on a hotel wing, wonder about not judging just reporting. I wonder about the intention of the gift, but to give a gift in seat where the recipient won't even know who gave it is a real gift. Second thing I'd say, giving a gift is a gift you give yourself as well. So the recipient feels better about the world, but you feel better about yourself. Even something as simple as wishing people a great day. Again, I'm using travel metaphors because I'm on this trip. We know what we're doing. Right? But imagine you're at a gate and you're giving the person the ticket, or you know, they're doing the login code before you get on the plane, you just wish them a great day.

1:03:33And you take the time to wish someone else a great day. Those simple acts of humanity are not only good for the world, they're good for yourself. They're good for your soul. And that is a form of wealth that money can't buy. And I think it's much more sustainable than money, which can come and go or equities in the stock market that have dips as well as bull markets. So gift giving is super, it is super, it's a super powerful way to roll through a human life. What's the Stephen King Lost Letter's rule? So I was reading James Patterson's memoir and he wrote about an instance where he wrote a letter called, it was something like the death of Stephen King or something like that.

1:04:33And Stephen King's publisher reached out to James Patterson's that, please don't do that. You know, there's some issues with stalkers, etc., etc. And so James Patterson said, absolutely, I will remove the chapter. As a matter of fact, I will have my publisher remove the entire print run with that chapter in it. thousands and thousands of books. And James Patterson, as Memoir said, I never received a thank you from anyone. And the idea from that chapter is simply the power of thank you notes and the power of appreciation and the power of acknowledging when someone when you find someone doing good take the time to acknowledge it.

1:05:16There's a quaker saying that really speaks to me and it's something to paraphrase it. It's something like if you have any opportunity to thank someone for doing something good. Do it now because you may not get that chance again. And I think that's worth thinking about. You see someone on the street or someone doing something nice for you. We're all busy. It's very easy to say, oh, I don't have the time to do it. But pressing the pause button and walking over to that person and just going, yeah, I just want appreciate you for doing that. That's amazing. Or the way you do your work, it's really good.

1:05:51I want to applaud you for that. Or, you know, here's a tip or here's a coffee or hit, you know, I want to write a letter to the CEO of your company. It doesn't take a long time, but it really does make a profound difference. What else haven't we said when it comes to curating and creating the community that people want. What do you think's missing? A mentor. My life changed because of my mentors. I've had some incredible mentors. When I was in my 20s, there was this gentleman who fascinated me. He lived a few doors down from me. Everyone else was working up three in the afternoon. I was coming back from the university and I always see him in his backyard sunbathing, reading.

1:06:37I said, like, who is this fasting person who is this fascinating person who is so unorthodox and such a contrarian who lives like that. So we became friends and one day we were walking along the ocean where we used to live in a city close to the ocean and he said Robin run your own race which to me has been so incredibly powerful like Robin run your own race we live in a world where a lot of us we define success according to the values and metrics society tells us we should define success by. But what's the point of living someone else's life? Leo Tolstoy did a short story, the death of Ivan Illich, and at the end of the story, death and Ivan Illich asks himself a fundamentally heartbreaking question, what if my whole life was wrong?

1:07:27So I think it's better to live your own life and be called a freak than to win at the world's life and find yourself being very empty. So mentor is incredibly powerful and one of the ideas I offer is if you can't find a live mentor then look for a dead one. The idea is recruit a dead board of directors. I find through their books. I mean you can learn how Mahatma Gandhi or Mandela or Hadil Omar or Basquia or Orville right? Edison, Einstein, you can learn how history's great women and men of the world did it through their books. And so what I'm suggesting is not only build a great library in this world where a lot of people love entertainment versus education, but almost assemble a metaphorical dead board of directors so that when you have a big decision to make you go into a quiet room and it's almost asking yourself on a moral issue.

1:08:27Here's a great question. What would Mandela do? On a business question, what would O 'Nassus do? On an artistic question, what would Dubu -Faidu do? On a spiritual question, what would O -Show do or whoever, you know, you respect. But assembling a dead board of directors, I think, is very powerful. I also would say it's super important to release the energy vampires, like I mentioned, but your community and your social network is incredibly important. What about Adventure? What role does Adventure have in our wealth? seventh form of wealth adventure without a rich Emerson without a rich heart wealth is an ugly beggar Rolled as adventure play I Think we were born Integeneous and we get resigned into mediocrity we are as little kids we have eyes that sparkle we are curious We are brave.

1:09:37We want to change the world And then we experience micro trauma and macro trauma along with the psychological programming to be reasonable and ordinary and average and we're actually sold a bill of goods that the geniuses and the great ones are cut from a different plot. And we hear it so much we actually start to believe it. So we lose that sense of adventure. It sounds simple but a lot of us want more joy. But we stopped doing the things that brought us joy when we were younger. And so there's a lot of chapters on adventure, but one story comes to mind. It's be a perfect moment to creator. So Eugene O 'Kelly was the former CEO of KPMG, the Accounting Behemoth.

1:10:27A tight enough industry, someone who was admired by so many people. And one day he went into his doctor's office for the results of a routine medical. And the doctor came back, Chris, with an expression you never want to see on the face of your doctor when you get the results of your routine medical. And the doctor said you have 90 days left to live. You have inoperable brain cancer. And sadly, he had roughly 90 days left before he did pass away. But he did something very interesting. He said, I'm going to use one of the techniques I used to build my business and I'm going to reverse engineer the last 90 days of my life to create what he called perfect moments.

1:11:11And he realized on his reflection and confronted with his mortality that he had never taken his wife to lunch in all those years as a top CEO. He'd missed out on his daughter's Christmas concerts in many cases. and he never gone on long walks in Central Park with his friends. And he decided to become a perfect moment creator. And that idea when I first learned it was very powerful to me. I think the seventh form of wealth is adventure and you don't need to go to Bali to do it. You can find perfect moments in every day. I mean, it caused me to take my kids to Mauritius and swim in the dolphins, which is one of the great highlights of my life.

1:11:52But just the other day I was in Toronto on this trip and it was the day the book was released and it was a very intense day And the next day I woke up before getting on a plane I was saddled in a dark hotel room. I had some good coffee and I took maybe two minutes to just feel some grace and some gratitude on the opportunity to do what I'm doing and so perfect moments it could be 15 minutes in a park where you notice spring flourishing. A perfect moment could be, you put down your phone in the evening and you read the prophet by Khalil Jibrat, or you're listening, listening to some beautiful music, and you're so present, it brings tears to your eyes.

1:12:38You could have a perfect moment where this Friday you take your significant other to this Italian restaurant, you eat some mozzarella I have some ketchup, Pepe, there I go again with my... But, you know, we're in a messy world right now, and online, you mentioned it, there is a lot of cynicism. I think it's really important to block out the noise and clean up your information diet and create a bubble. And people might say, well, that's not realistic. Well, it's more realistic than creating a bubble of information and your ecosystem that allows you to be a possibleitarian. Where you literally say, okay, life is short.

1:13:19That's the power of connecting with your mortality. Life is short. I'm going to surround myself with people who fuel my joy versus degrade my joy. I'm going to follow people who inspire me and lift me up versus tear me down. I'm going to read beautiful books that nourish me at all levels. I'm going to eat great food. I'm going to be a minimalist versus a maximalist. some of us, and I'm going to live life on my own terms. That's one of the key elements I would say about adventure. What were Alexander the Great's last three wishes? Eighth Form of Well Service. Society doesn't say you're helping people, you're lifting people up, you're doing your work in a way that pushes value into the marketplace to show respect for your consumers, and you're leaving people better than you found them, even in the smallest of ways.

1:14:08Wow, you know, you're a servant leader or you believe in service. You're rich, but it is form of riches. When I was growing up, my dad used to say, Robin, when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice. My dad will be 87. I mentioned that, but he'll be 87 in a few weeks. He's the humblest, most one of the most decent, giving people I've ever met. And so I've learned the power of helpfulness through my father. And many people, my mother, my mom always goes, you always mention your dad and anything your work, what about me, you know, like, and so she's a titan.

1:14:49She's, she's a force of nature. She's, she really is very amazing. And so that gets me to Alexander the greats last three wishes. I mean, told his lieutenants. He said, Chris, when I die, I want you to do three things for me. He said, number one, I want the world's finest doctors to be following my casket in the funeral procession. Number two, I want you to take all my jewels and shiny toys and treasures and litter them on the road that takes me to the graveyard. And number three, I want you to make sure my hands are open for all the people who have gathered to see. One brave lieutenant said, why explain these three wishes and Alexander the Great said, well, I want the world's greatest doctors to follow me so that everyone realizes that even with the best physician, you can't cheat that.

1:15:52Number two, I want everyone to see the jewels. So people realize that money made on earth remains on earth. Oh, how much of our life we spend chasing these shiny things only to realize at the end they made very little difference. And he said the third requirement, we're born with nothing and I want people to see that we die empty handed. So live richly versus be accumulating things most of your time if you want to live. Let's say a wealthy, fulfilling, happy, and serene life. Robin Sharma, ladies and gentlemen, Robin, I love your work. I think your storytelling is fantastic. Where should people go?

1:16:34They want to keep up to date with all of the things that you're doing and check out your new stuff. Instagram, robincharma, YouTube, lots of videos, robincharma .com, the new book, the wealth money can't buy is on Audible, Amazon, good bookstores, and about 50 countries right now. So I just want to applaud you, Chris, for the millions of people that you're enriching and the influence you're having on so many people. And it's been a real pleasure to meet you. I appreciate you. Thank you, mate.